Bernie Sanders is coming to Columbia for Martin Luther King Day rally

FILE - In this April 4, 2018, file photo, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., responds to a question during a town hall meeting in Jackson, Miss. Sanders won Vermont’s Democratic Senate primary on Tuesday, Aug. 14, but was expected to turn down the nomination, as he did in his previous campaigns, and support other Democratic candidates. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File) Rogelio V. SolisAP

FILE - In this April 4, 2018, file photo, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., responds to a question during a town hall meeting in Jackson, Miss. Sanders won Vermont’s Democratic Senate primary on Tuesday, Aug. 14, but was expected to turn down the nomination, as he did in his previous campaigns, and support other Democratic candidates. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File) Rogelio V. SolisAP

COLUMBIA, SC

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders is the latest presidential contender to plan a visit to South Carolina.

Sanders will speak at the annual King Day at the Dome rally at the State House on Jan. 21, the S.C. NAACP confirmed Tuesday.

The independent Vermont senator is the second potential candidate for the Democratic nomination added to the event. U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., also will speak at the Martin Luther King Jr. Day event.

The rally has been a platform for presidential candidates in the past. Sanders last spoke there before the state’s Democratic primary in 2016, along with Hillary Clinton and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley. Sanders went on to finish a distant second to Clinton in that primary.

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Sanders is one of a number of candidates expected to jump into the race for the Democratic nomination in 2020. He made an appearance in Columbia in October at a “Medicare for All” rally ahead of the November midterm election.

South Carolina will hold the first-in-the-South Democratic presidential primary on Feb. 29, 2020.

Bristow Marchant covers politics and government for The State, with more than 10 years’ experience covering South Carolina. He won the S.C. Press Association’s 2015 award for Best Series on a toxic Chester County landfill fire, and was part of The State’s award-winning 2016 election coverage.